ASRock Fatal1ty Z77 Professional Review

Overview

 

What we have here is what could be regarded as the successor to the ASRock Z68 Fatal1ty Pro tested by myself back in 2011. At that time the Z68 Fatal1ty Professional earned itself a very worthy Gold award and to be fair is one of the best motherboards we have tested to date.

Therefore this board, the AsRock Fatal1ty Z77 Professional has some petty big shoes to fill.

 

 

This (ATX Form Factor) motherboard and its accessories came well packaged in a smart carry handle box, with Johnathan Fatal1ty Wendel taking centre stage on the front. The back of the box is adorned with the features that the ASRock Z77 Fatal1ty Professional supports, there are rather a lot, see below for more detail…

In comparison to the Z68 version, the Z77 version didn’t seem quite as well presented as the last one, with its lid that when lifted showcased the motherboard within.

 

 

Once inside the accessories and associated paperwork can be seen lying in a tray at the top of the box. Beneath this is the motherboard itself housed within a anti-static bag and nestling in a protective foam tray.

There is good deal of paperwork and accessories included with the Z77 Fatal1ty Professional and these can be seen below.

 

 

Box Contents:

• Fatal1ty Z77 Professional Series Motherboard
• Quick Installation Guide, Software Setup Guide, Driver CD, ASRock 555 Guide & Virtu MVP Guide
• x6 SATA3 6GBs cables (x3 with right-angled connectors)
• x2 SATA HDD Power Cables
• Motherboard I/O Panel Sheild
• Front USB 3 Panel
• Rear USB 3 Bracket
• SLI Bridge 2S Card

 

Specifications/Features

courtesy of ASRock

* Additional details available here

 

At the time of writing the ASRock Fatal1ty Z77 Professional Series is retailing for approximately £180 and comes with a 3 year limited warranty.

 

First Impressions

 

 

Well as you can see from images the ASRock Fatal1ty Z77 Professional is one cool looking board, especially if you like red! I’m normally a blue fan myself but the red and black design of this board is particularly smart I think. The black heat-sinks look especially purposeful and the Fatal1ty Logo and Fatal1ty Brand logos leave you in no doubt who’s endorsed this board…

 

 

Let’s take a look around the board corner by corner:

At the top left of the motherboard you can see the main I/O panel along with the LGA1155 Socket with its triple set of heat-sinks keeping that 16 + 8 Power circuitry cool. Right at the top of the board (in a slightly different location) is the 8-Pin ATX 12v power connector. Also found within this quadrant is a Power Fan connector, Chassis Fan connector and an Internal Audio connector.

To the right of this you will find the 4 x DDR3 DIMM slots supporting up to 2800+ (OC) MHz memory. Here is also where you will find the main ATX Power connector along with an IDE connector (really!?) and the motherboard’s single USB 3.0 header.

In both the images below you can also see the heavy usage of ‘Premium Gold Caps’, these 100% Japanese solid capacitors should ensure long life and stable performance.

 

 

The bottom left corner of the ASRock Fatal1ty Z77 Professional houses the boards x2 PCIE 3.0 x16 slots (PCIE2 & PCIE4); note that this is either (SINGLE GPU: PCIE2 at x16 & PCIE4 at x8) or (DUAL GPU: PCIE2 at x8 & PCIE4 at x8). Also PCIE 3.0 is only supported by fitting an Ivy Bridge CPU. In addition to this there is a single PCIE 2.0 x16 slot, x2 PCI slots and x2 PCIE x1 slots. Below the PCI slots you will also find the following, a Front Panel Audio Header, COM Port, Floppy Connector(floppy connector!), Infared Module Header, IEEE 1394 Header, Clear CMOS Jumper, Chassis Fan Connector and x2 USB 2.0 Headers.

Finally the bottom right corner of the board features the x6 SATA 3 (6GBs) connectors (red) and x4 SATA2 connectors (black). As you can see from the sticker ASRock suggests using SATA 0~5 as a boot device for better performance this is due to the fact that the other 4 ports are controlled by a third party controller (ASMedia – SATA3_A1 ~ SATA3_A4). On the very edge of the board is also another Chassis Fan Connector (that makes a total of 3) and the System Panel Header. Just above these is Power LED Header (this is in addition to the one found on the System Panel Header) and a Chassis Speaker Header.

 

 

Also found in the bottom right corner of the board are two of the most useful motherboard features that I can think of. The Debug LED; this gives you a wealth of information during the Power on Self Test (POST) process and should anything fail here’s where to look for the answer (worth its weight in gold this one!). Also found here are the Power and Reset buttons, most useful when you’re trying to boot the system for the first time (or should you be having difficulties) as this allows you to turn the system on/off without the need for connecting up your case’s switch gear.

 

 

Here is a breakdown of the inputs and outputs to be found on the ASRock Fatal1ty Z77 Pro’s I/O Panel:

 

 

Hardware Installation

 

First a little background on the Z77 Chipset (Panther Point) and the Ivy Bridge CPU:

The Z77 Chipset is what you’ll need if you were to want to run Intel’s latest and greatest CPU code-named Ivy Bridge and benefit from ALL of its features. Ivy Bridge uses the same LGA1155 socket as Sandy Bridge and most CPU’s are interchangeable (i.e Ivy Bridge CPU can work with a Z68 Chipset & Sandy Bridge CPU can work with a Z77 Chipset), although this is motherboard manufacturer specific so you may want to check first. The Ivy Bridge CPU along with the Z77 Chipset is also the OFFICIAL way (there are previous generation boards that can provide support via separate controllers) to get PCI-E3 support and this is one of the major features of the Z77 & Ivy Bridge platform. In addition to this the CPU memory controller has been enhanced with Ivy Bridge now natively supporting 1600MHz RAM as opposed to the old 1333MHz standard. The on-chip graphics have also been enhanced with the Ivy bridge CPU now sporting Intel’s HD 4000 technology. Last but not least the Z77 Chipset also has on-board support for USB3.

 

 

The existing motherboard from My Rig was removed along with my old 2500K (Sandy Bridge) and the new ASRock Fatal1ty Z77 Professional with a new Ivy Bridge 3770K was fitted. No installation issues were found, other than the ASRock board needed an additional stand-off fitted and the slightly unusual placement of the 12V ATX Power Connector made access a little more difficult.

My Kingston HyperX 240GB SSD was connected to one of the Intel SATA3 Ports (SATA_3_0) and the ASMedia SATA3 ports were disabled in the BIOS, as the non Intel ports tend to offer lesser performance.

 

 

Testing Methodology/Setup

 

A new installation of Windows Home Premium 64bit (Service Pack 1) was performed and the following drivers were then installed. The latest ASRock drivers were used and can been obtained here (I did not use the ones on the disc as I wanted to be using the latest).

Drivers installed:

• Intel Chipset (INF driver ver: 9.3.0.1019)
• Realtek High Definition Audio Driver (6.0.1.6559)
• Broadcom LAN Driver (14.8.4.1 64Bit)
• Intel USB 3.0 (1.0.4.220)
• Etron USB 3.0 (0.110)
• NVIDIA Graphics (301.42)
• Cyborg R.A.T. 9 Driver: (version 7.0.12.0)

During testing the following tools/benchmarks & games were used:

• 3DMark 11
• Unigine Heaven
• Metro 2033
• Prime95
• CoreTemp
• CPUz

• Blacklight Retribution
• Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood
• Battlefield 3

 

Hardware Performance

 

It’s always a scary thing, pressing that power button for the first time; ‘will it boot, what will I do if it won’t boot?’. So I pressed the power button, that lovely one on the motherboard and guess what happened…

Yes; it booted up first time, but strangely enough I had no picture on my Hazro HZ27WC (2560×1440). So after some messing about (not too sure what I did!) I did get a picture, but still something was wrong as all I could see was what looked like the top left corner of the BIOS Fatal1ty splash screen (weird!). Now after even more messing about with no joy, I went for what I thought was the last resort and changed to a different monitor, a Dell U2311H (1920×1080). Worked like a charm!?

The long and short of this is that the ASRock Fatal1ty Z77 Professional does not like the Hazro HZ27WC (or is it the other way around?). I even tried another Hazro monitor, a HZ30Wie (2560×1600) and it was fine, but I got the same problem with a DGM IPS-2701WPH (2560×1440). Both ASRock and Hazro are looking it to this and I will update this review when more is known. For the time being I will have to resort to my trusty Dell.

UPDATE Also works fine with a Dell U2711 (2560×1440), so it doesnt look like it’s an odd resolution issue…

 

 

As you can see from images above the ASRock Fatal1ty Z77 Professional sports a really nice well laid out UEFI. The System Browser (second image) allows you to take a tour of the motherboard. By highlighting various components on the motherboard the UEFI will give you some basic information, which is nice, especially for those new to a UEFI/BIOS. Having checked everything looked as it should (CPU, Memory, Drives etc) it was on to installing Windows 7.

Once Windows 7 (64Bit) was installed, along with the various Drivers listed above, I used My Rig over the next 24+ hours to check for stability at the motherboard’s default settings. As hoped and as expected no problems were encountered.

The next step was to ensure that my memory (Crucial Ballistix Tactical Tracer 8GB) was running at its XMP setting as by default the RAM is set to run at 1333MHz instead of the OC 1600MHz that the Crucial memory is capable of. With Load XMP Setting set to XMP 1.3 Profile 1 in the UEFI it was time for some more stability checks, this was done by way of some Prime95 (small FFT) runs and some 3DMark 11 runs along with some ad-hoc gaming (mainly Blacklight Retribution). With everything looking good it was time to take a look at some Overclocking…

The first stop was the load one of the Optimized CPU OC settings in the UEFI, there are 5 options here 4.0GHz, 4.2GHz, 4.4GHz, 4.6GHz and 4.8GHz. So the first stop was 4.0GHz; with the benchmarks ran and Prime95 seemingly stable it was time to press on. I managed to get to 4.6GHz before some instability set in, this first showed up in Windows with programs randomly crashing and also Prime95 wasn’t fully stable. I had also noticed that my Corsair H100 CPU Cooler seemed to be working harder than normal so I began to keep a closer eye on the core temperatures!

In an attempt to overclock further I started to use the ASRock F-Stream overclocking utility and using this I was able to push the Intel Core i7 3770K up to 4.7Ghz with complete stability. At this point the Core temperatures were getting extremely high at 89 degrees (see image below). This nifty utility allows you to apply further overclocks once into the OS, these can be applied automatically by ticking a couple of tick-boxes that force F-Stream to start at Windows start-up and apply you’re settings.

 

 

With temperatures now at 89 degrees even with a (Corsair H100 Liquid Cooler) it was time to stop. It would appear that the ASRock Fatal1ty Z77 Professional would push on past 4.7GHz but the Ivy Bridge CPU thermals wouldn’t let it and I was getting scared (89 degrees!). The Ivy Bridge 3770K generates a lot more heat than my current Sandy Bridge 2500K at lower voltages and clock speeds. If your planning an overclocked Ivy Bridge build, probably best to have a Liquid Cooler in place such as the Corsair H100, as Intel’s latest runs a little hot!

 

• Benchmark Results

Motherboard OC Settings	3DMark 11	Unigine Heaven	Metro 2033
ASRock Fatal1ty Z77 Professional @ 3.5 GHz	10409	1324	34.0 FPS
ASRock Fatal1ty Z77 Professional @ 4.386 GHz (x43 multiplier & 102MHz BClk)	10717	1335	34.67 FPS
ASRock Fatal1ty Z77 Professional @ 4.7GHz	10776	1333	34.67 FPS

 

Now let’s take a look at how the ASRock Fatal1ty Z77 Professional compares to the MSI Z68A-GD80 G3 in my rig. Although this is not a direct comparison as the CPUs ARE different, I will run both CPU’s with x43 multiplier and a 102MHz base clock. Why? see here.

Below are the UEFI settings used for a 4.386GHz (43 x 102) CPU overclock using a Base Clock speed of 102MHz. FYI: I actually used the built in OC Setting of 4.4GHz and then just made my modifications accordingly.

 

 

 

• CPU @ 4.3GHz – BClk 102MHz (effective 4.386GHz) / Memory @ 1632MHz (8-8-8-24 2T)

Motherboard	3DMark 11	Unigine Heaven	Metro 2033
ASRock Fatal1ty Z77 Pro	10717	1335	34.67 FPS
MSI Z68A-GD80 G3 @ 4.3GHz	10053	1313	34.67 FPS

 

Now I know we are to some degree comparing apples to pears but as this is a logical upgrade for many it’s something that I would like to talk about for a minute.

As you can see there’s a relatively significant boost in performance in the 3DMark 11 test, but far less in both the Unigine and Metro 2033 test. This is down to the fact that 3DMark 11 has specific CPU tests that allow the 8 Cores (x4 Virtual) of the Intel Core i7 3770K to shine through. But as you can see from a pure gaming point of view there’s not that much to gain from Ivy Bridge! Of course this is no fault of the ASRock Fatal1ty Z77 Professional that has performed its job admirably throughout all of the overclocking and testing…

On the plus side My Rigis now sporting a Windows Performance Index of 7.8 (see below for a full breakdown). I wonder how hard I will have to push that CPU to reach 7.9?

 

 

• Additional Software/Features

 

The ASRock Fatal1ty Z77 Professional has a host of Software and Features that may never get used by us Gamers; more information regarding these can be found here.

 

Final Thoughts

 

The ASRock Fatal1ty Z77 Professional came well packaged (not quite as well as the Z68 version) and has a very well laid out board design and even features Floppy and IDE controllers! The board looks particularly smart and is a great basis for a red themed rig. Other notable features of the board are the on-board Power and Reset buttons along with the Debug LED (these really are useful!) although I have to admit, I haven’t used it during the testing of this board, thankfully!

The latest UEFI BIOS from ASRock is a slick affair and was intuitive and very easy to use. The addition of the System Browser, along with ability to Flash the BIOS from within the BIOS is also noteworthy.

Overclocking the Intel Ivy Bridge 3770K was easy enough using the UEFI OC settings and the F-Stream utility, only the poor thermals of the Ivy Bridge CPU stopped me pushing further as temperatures began to rise close to 90 degrees when under full load. Overall my experience with the ASRock Fatal1ty Z77 Professional has been pretty faultless (apart from the really odd monitor issue (see Hardware Performance above)). I have had no issues at all during use and the board has been 100% stable during all gaming and testing.

So did the ASRock Fatal1ty Z77 Professional live up to the expectations set by the Z68 Pro. Yes, although due to the new Ivy Bridge CPU, overclocking is a slightly more difficult (hotter!) affair.

As My Rig is now armed with 8 Cores running at 4.4GHz (higher if I dare!) and as the ASRock Fatal1ty Z77 Professional along with the Intel Core i7 3770K brings other benefits too, I think it’s time to retire my old MSI board and my Sandy Bridge 2500K. For now it’s the ASRock Fatal1ty Z77 Professional and an Intel Core i7 3770K for me!

 

Verdict